Monday, December 13, 2010

Be Careful what you Preach!

This year's local Children's Christmas parade was a chilling event. Instead of our usual 75 degress in Florida, it was in the 50's. More chilling was the group from FamilyRadio.com handing out their blasphemous message proclaiming the end of the world.

"But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. (Matthew 24:36)

I found it very difficult to try and talk to these people as they were handing this message out. They would say "Here's some information from the Bible". This parade is mostly for youngsters. It would not be a wise thing to have them see a disagreement among, whom they perceive, as Christians. This group takes a few scriptures, calculates the date of the flood, adds 7000 years and comes up with the date of May 21, 2011.

Harold Camping (FamilyRadio.com) conveniently ignores the second half of 2 Peter 3:8, “and a thousand years as one day.” 2 Peter 3:8 is not providing a method for dating the end times - Peter is saying that God is above and beyond time. Second, nothing in the context of Genesis 7:4-11 indicates that the “seven days” and “seventeenth day of the second month” are to be interpreted as applying to anything other than what God was specifically saying to Noah. Third, the Flood being dated to 4990 B.C. is speculative at best, with no explicit biblical evidence. Camping’s calculation of May 21, 2011 falls apart with even the most basic biblical scrutiny. Jesus may be coming back on May 21, 2011? Or He will come back on some other date. Does Harold Camping’s particular dating methodology have any biblical validity? No! Assuming that Jesus does not return on or before May 21, 2011, Camping, and others, will surely calculate new future dates and will attempt to explain away mistakes by “errors in the formula” or something to that effect.

The key points are: (1) the Bible nowhere encourages us to attempt to discover the timing of Jesus’ return, and (2) the Bible gives no explicit data by which the timing of Jesus’ return can be determined. Rather than developing wild and speculative calculations to determine when Jesus is coming back, the Bible encourages us to “keep watch” and “be ready” (Matthew 24:42-44). The fact that the day of Jesus’ return is unknown is what should motivate us to live every day in light of the imminence of Christ’s return.

fyi: On Sept. 6, 1994, dozens of Camping's believers gathered inside Alameda's Veterans Memorial Building to await the return of Christ, an event Camping had promised for two years. Followers dressed children in their Sunday best and held Bibles open-faced toward heaven. But the world did not end. Camping allowed that he may have made a mathematical error. He spent the next decade running new calculations, as well as overseeing a media company that has grown significantly in size and reach.

Why do I say it's a blasphemous message?Because by saying you know the exact day and hour, says you know as much as God.And you don't - God is timeless, infinite, and eternal.

I ignored their presence and delivered about 150 tracts into the kids, and their parents' hands.